While the Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act of 2008 requires that employers of all sizes provide paid sick leave to their employees, the accrual rate and cap is determined based on the number of employees. Below are some frequently asked questions about the state's paid sick leave requirements.
How much earned paid sick time must an employer offer an employee?
- Under 25 employees: Employees accrue one hour for every 87 hours worked, with a maximum annual accrual of 24 hours.
- Between 25 and 99 employees: Employees accrue one hour for every 43 hours worked, with a maximum annual accrual of 40 hours.
- 100+ employees: Employees accrue one hour for every 37 hours worked, with a maximum annual accrual of 56 hours.
- All unused hours carry over to the next year.
Can employers enstate a probationary period?
- While Washington D.C. employees accrue paid sick leave as soon as they start working, employers may require a probationary period be worked before time is used.
- Employees must be allowed to use earned paid sick leave after 90 days of work.
When can an employee use paid sick leave?
Employees may use paid sick leave for themselves or their family member, for any of the following reasons:
- Diagnosis or treatment for a physical illness or injury
- School closures or childcare closures due to a public health emergency, as declared by a public official
- Reasons related to sexual assault, harassment, or domestic abuse.
How to set up accrual policies in OnPay
Go to Payroll, then Set up, and click Accrual Policies.
Click Add in the upper right to open the Policy Setup template.
The Policy Setup template is divided into two parts:
- Policy name and type
- Policy setup
Policy name and type
Give this policy a unique name that sets it apart from other accruals. The name should make it very clear how and when this policy will apply. For this example, we'll make a sick time policy that accrues annually, but we'll explore many more examples later in this article.
Determine the timeframe by which accrued time is earned. Your choices are “Per hour worked,” “Per pay period,” or “Annual on anniversary date” (hire date).
Choose when these hours will expire, if ever. Your choices are “Hours do not expire”, “Hours expire on anniversary”, or “Hours expire on Jan 1st”.
Select the accrual type.
Policy Setup
The Policy Setup is in three periods. This means hours accrued by workers can increase with their tenure in up to three stages. To create a probationary period, where no time is accrued until this introductory period is over, enter "0" per hour, then the number of months in the probationary period. If you don't want accruals to increase, enter the same information in each period. Unused hours will rollover to the next period. We'll explore more examples later.
Note: Setting the "Cap" is not the same as setting a "rollover limit".
- Some businesses limit the amount of unused time off that an employee can continue to hold going into a new year. This is to ensure that employees are taking the time they need to live a balanced and full life, as well as to protect the business from employees taking or cashing out large sums of paid time off all at once. We'll show you how to limit rollover in How to assign time off accrual policies to employees→
First two periods
For the first two periods, enter:
- How many hours can be accrued each year
- For how many months time is accrued at this rate
- The limit, or cap for these hours.
Third period
You don’t need to indicate the number of months in the third period. This period lasts for the remainder of the worker's employment.
Click Create when you're ready to finalize this accrual. Clicking Not Now will close this window, but will not save your progress.